Protesters form chain around Ribble's office to oppose Social Security proposal

Jul. 3, 2013

Protesters formed a human chain around Congressman Reid Ribble’s office Tuesday in Green Bay to oppose a proposal to change how Social Security benefits will be made.

The proposed method would lower annual benefits, said members of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, a nonprofit organization. They were protesting the chained Consumer Price Index and Ribble’s proposal to cut Social Security benefits as part of a National Day of Action opposing the chained CPI.

The chained CPI measures the rise of prices of consumer goods and services over time. Changes in consumer prices are used to determine cost-of-living adjustments.

The chained CPI will affect current and future retirees and would result in an annual benefit roughly $1,000 lower than current benefits by the time a beneficiary reaches the age of 85, according to the WIARA’s press release.

WIARA member Leon Burzynski voiced his opinion about how the chained CPI will change Social Security at the protest. “The chained CPI will essentially ask us to buy something cheaper if we can’t afford something,” Burzynski said. “If someone needs a knee replacement, they’ll get a cane. Or if someone needs a hip replacement, they’ll get a wheelchair.”

In a letter addressed to Ribble, R-Sherwood, Tony Vanderbloemen, president of the NEW Labor Retiree Club, wrote that someone who retires this year would lose more than $6,000 in benefits over 15 years if the chained CPI were in effect because it would decrease the already low cost-of-living inflationary protections.

The chained CPI assumes that a lower cost-of-living adjustment is acceptable because consumers will substitute cheaper products when prices go up.

After a few community members spoke at the protest, Vanderbloemen delivered the letter to Ribble’s office.

State Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, attended the event. “In my job as a state senator, we’ve heard from a lot of people who are hardly making it on $600 a month, and to go backwards with chained CPI is absolutely the wrong thing to do,” he said